Easter wreath - Húsvéti kalácskoszorú

Easter is knocking on the door and I confess, I'm in very festive mood. Not only had summer arrived to SD, which definitely brings even more energy with the lengthy sunny hours, my knee is in the track of recovery and makes me fly of happiness, but with my agoraphobia I rather stick to baking. :)
Well, at least this challah wreath gets posted in time to be tried and, if liked, baked for Easter, not like my Runebergin torttu which got baked in time, but the post arrived a bit late..
I made two versions of the challah, one with walnuts and one with poppy seeds. I'm a poppy seed person, so I would definitely go for that :) for Easter, but the walnut version wasn't bad either. It reminded me of kürtőskalács. Ajajjj... I would definitely prefer the kürtőskalács baked over fire... but let's not be unfair, and let this challah enjoy the spotlight this time.

Ingredients
500 g bread flour (1.1 pounds)
50 g sugar (100 ml, a bit less than 1/5 cup)
250 ml milk (1 cup)
1 tbsp dry yeast or 40 g fresh yeast (1 cube)
150 g butter (1 1/3 stick)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence or 1 vanilla bean
1 grated lemon peel (or orange)
0.5 dl milk to brush the crust at the end, optional, it makes the crust softer, and the crumb a bit heavier, but you can choose to use a little, or not at all, of course, it is optional
pearl sugar/brown sugar (optional) to sprinkle on top

Filling
50 g butter, melted
200 g minced walnuts
100 g sugar
OR
100 g poppy seeds, minced (you can try 200 poppy seeds as well, to me it looked too black to add the same amount of poppy seeds than walnuts, but I bet there are people who like it with looots of poppy seeds :) )
70 g sugar, 80 g if you are have a sweet tooth :)

Brushing
1 small egg

In the lukewarm milk let the yeast trot for 5-10 minutes, with a large pinch of sugar.
In a larger bowl mix the flour with the sugar, salt and vanilla beans.
Melt the butter (add the vanilla essence if you are not using vanilla beans).
Pour the melted butter in the flour, mix well, add milk and work it very well together in a smooth, airy dough.
Or, pour everything in the blender and let it work for you for ~5 minutes.
Cover the dough with a cloth and let it stay for ~45 minutes until rises to double size. If needed leave it for an hour (even more). It is probably the most critical part to have the dough risen properly.

Roll out the dough to about 40x30cm, spread the melted butter on the dough and sprinkle the sugar/walnut-poppy seed filling on it, and roll it up.
Cut ~2 cm thick slices towards the middle, but not completely 'till the middle, and lightly turn them on their side.




Use 1 egg to brush the challah well all over, sides, and turned pieces.
Let it sit for 10-15 min.



Preheat the oven to 225 C, 435 F. Bake at 225 C (435 F) for 25 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from oven. You can either cover it with a cloth for couple of minutes until cools down, or if you want a softer crust use 0.5 dl milk and brush it all over. It won't take the shine away, and it will be absorbed right away.

Enjoy!

Pannukakku - pan-cake, but not pancake :)

My daughter was asking for pannukakku, another Finnish cake..
I have a kinda so-so relationship with it, not overly excited about, but good for a dessert every now and then, especially when I didn't have to make it. Well, I have to make it now :). If you speak Finnish, just go ahead and visit my friend's friend's blog here Ullan Leipomuksia.
If you don't, here is the recipe translated for you.
I like the crispy top so I adjusted the quantities a tiny bit to my tray, which is a bit smaller (20cmx30cm) than the average Finnish tray, to make a thinner pannukakku.
It is a less labor intensive alternative to palacsinta, crepes.

Ingredients (serves 6-8, preparation time 50 min, active 10 min)
3 dl cake flour
1 dl sugar
1 flat tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar (add essence in US)
1 flat tsp salt
6 dl milk
2 eggs
75 g butter, melted

Mix the dry ingredients and start adding milk, whisking to get a smooth dough. If I add half of the milk to the flour and whisk well, only then add the rest, works fine for me, it won't be lumpy.
In a separate bowl whisk lightly the egg whites (no need to beat them, just have them lightly white to brake down the viscosity of the whites), add the egg yolks, and add the eggs to the batter.
Last whisk in the melted butter.
Let it kinda mature together, just like "palacsinta" batter, for 15-30 min.
Poor the batter in a deeper tray,  ~1 cm thick layer should be on the bottom of the tray. Thicker is good, as well, it will however have a thicker layer of white, more dense batter in the middle and might need slightly longer baking.
You can choose whether you use the tray as is, or water it and "stick" a parchment paper to the bottom. You can use a wider wooden spatula to get the pannukakku out, so whichever you choose don't worry about scratching the tray.
Preheat the oven to 225 C (435 F) and bake on a middle shelf for 30-40 minutes (depends on the size of your tray) until the top is light golden-brown..
It will rise 'till almost (or 'till) the top of the tray, and when you remove it from the oven will collapse to about its original size. Don't panic, that's how it should be :).
Look for a lighter top than the one on the pic, my hubby managed to over bake it while I was at the girl's party downtown :).

Enjoy cold or while still slightly warm with:
strawberry marmalade
whipped cream/whipped vanilla cream
fresh berries
ice cream
a combination of the above

Original recipe for a standard Finnish tray
Ingredients
4 dl cake flour
1.5 dl sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp salt
8 dl milk
2 eggs
100 butter, melted

Korvapuusti - earslap - cinnamon buns

Yesterday  I made "korvapuusti" for the ladies' night, a friend's special request :).
Mot a mot translation of korvapuusti is earslap, however it is much more pleasant :D.
We had so much fun with the name, looking for the similarities between the Hungarian and the Finnish language.
A friend (trying to repeat the name to remember) called them kurvapusti :D, (kurva=bitch in Hungarian), so we couldn't stop playn' with the languages and further "translate" puusti to puszi (=kiss in Hungarian), and giggled like crazy thinking how she will go home in the middle of the night and tell hubby she brought him some kurvapuszi (bitch's kiss) in her pocket.
Soo, as you see our languages are really related, we could right away find some meaningful interpretation of korvapuusti in Hungarian.

Now back to the recipe, korvapuusti is not difficult to prepare, however as all yeast based goodies takes some time to rise.

Ingredients (makes ~16 BIG buns, roll it thinner and make a smaller roll with smaller buns and you'll get the double amount)
500 ml milk (2 cups)
2 tsp (2 bags) dry yeast
1 egg
200 ml sugar (a bit less than 2 cups)
150 g butter (a bit less then 1 1/2 stick)
1 tbsp minced cardamom seed
1 tsp salt
~900-1000 g (~2.2 lb) all purpose (bread) flour, 1300-1500 ml (5-6 cups)
1 tsp vanilla sugar or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean (optional)

Filling
50 g sugar (3 large tbsp, 4 smaller tbsp)
50 g butter (1/2 stick)
2 large tbsp cinnamon (for kids maybe more sugar and less cinnamon, as with too much cinnamon can become spicy).
if you made small buns and ran out of butter you'll have to use a bit more butter & sugar-cinnamon mix

Brushing
1 egg
1-2 tbsp water
pearl sugar (can be replaced with nubbly brown sugar)

Warm up 1 dl milk to ~hand warm, let the yeast to trot for couple of minutes.
Add to the rest of the milk, whisk in sugar, egg, salt and cardamom.
Stir in slowly the flour until you get a dough that starts not to stick anymore neither to the walls of the bowl nor your hands.
Melt the butter, knead it in the dough, and continue kneading until you get a smooth dough. Add more flour if needed until the dough does not stick to your fingers.
As usual, you should "work" some air in the dough, to be light.
Let it rise for 45-60 minutes, to about double size (if your room is cold, let it rise as long as it needs, it really makes a difference).
Divide the dough into 2-3 portions, easier to work with. Knead each part again to "get rid of" the air bubbles from the dough. Let is rise again for about 15 minutes.
On a silicon mat roll out the dough in a rectangle, about 0.5 cm thick (thinner for smaller rolls).
Melt the butter, spread on the dough just enough to have it covered well, sprinkle the sugar-cinnamon mix on top until the butter doesn't soak any more in.
Roll it up in a roll, and let it stay for 15 more minutes.

Now cut it in trapezoids, turn the pieces with the thinner side up, press the middle down with your finger, and let it stay for another 15 minutes.
Brush them with the water-egg mix, sprinkle pearl sugar on top, and place them in trays covered with parchment paper.
In a preheated oven, at 225 C (435 F), bake them for 15-17 minutes until light golden-brown.
Serve fresh, slightly warm are best.
They are a perfect snack for cold winter days, we took them with us to the ski slopes with a thermos of hot chocolate, and in the forest for our hikes..

Ile flottante - madártej

It is the kids favorite. It was mine too when I was a kid... but I never got the chance to make it with anybody, so I just had to start doing it on my own, without any proper guidelines.
I always thought it must be difficult to make as people were sayin' you should be very cautious about not to over boil the egg yolk, or it will taste like an omelet floating in milk. Yak.. And surely I DID manage to over boil it once, and it did taste like an omelet, but that wasn't the problem, the problem was I always made ~7 litres at once, so there you go, hush, 5 litres of milk, 0.5 kg sugar and 50 eggs going down the toilet. :(
However I learned how not to over boil it ever, anymore.
It became the easiest dessert one can make, the only difficulty we still have is waiting for the cream to cool down. Just takes waaaaay to long (unless one is risking ruining the freezer and puts the cream in it). I call it cream, but it is liquid, like a maple syrup, or something, if you wanna compare the texture in your imagination..
Madártej is "bird milk", suggesting that you have the little white birds sitting in a cup of yellow milk :). In french is "floating island", where the egg white is the island. You call it as you wish..

Ingredients (makes 4-6 portions), preparation time 20 min (+cooling time)
1 litres (4 cups) whole milk
10 eggs yolks (keep the eggs at room temperature for at least 0.5 day)
100-150 g sugar (3.5 - 5.2 ounce), icing if you have, but castor is good too, (I like it less sweet)
1 vanilla bean
1/2 tsp rum aroma (optional) 

For the birds (islands)
~3-4 egg whites
0.5 litre (2 cups) milk 

Edited to add: add about 15-20 g of sugar to the egg white to achieve stiffer meringue

Separate the egg yolks, and save the egg whites...
Whisk the egg yolks well together with the sugar, except ~1 flat tbsp sugar. We will use that to make a harder egg white. Use a bit larger bowl than needed, you'll see why later..
Cut the vanilla bean in two, scratch out the tiny seeds, keep the husk.
Bring the milk in a pot to boil with the vanilla seeds, and the husk. When boiling remove it from the heat (remove the vanilla husks), lower the heat, start pouring slowly! the hot milk into the egg yolk-sugar mix, stirring continuously. When nice and smooth pour the cream back in the pot, put it back to the low heat and let it thicken for ~5 min, stirring continuously. DO NOT BOIL IT anymore.
Yeah, I know, takes a bit of stirring, but not to worry about, is all done in 10 minutes :). DO NOT keep it on the fire until you find it thick enough, it will further thicken while it cools down.
After 5 min remove from heat, add the rum aroma if you chose to add (I don't add 'cause my kids don't like it), and let it cool down, stirring occasionally not to have the skin formed on top.
Meanwhile beat the egg whites with the 1 tbsp sugar (beat them until they look almost good without the sugar first, it will be better, should be a hard whipped egg white), bring the milk to boil, start scooping nice oval shaped egg whites into the boiling milk. As soon as you drop them in the milk let them "cook" for 5 seconds, turn them to the other side, boil for additional 5 sec, remove to a plate with a spoon (with holes, preferably), carefully not to take milk with the "birds" or they will moisten in the plate.
Let them dry on the plate until the cream ("bird milk", the "ocean") is cold enough for serving.
Serve the cold cream (the "bird milk") with one "bird"  floating on top. Enjoy.
Usually one "bird" is not enough to finish the cream, so keep some more on the table..

The French serve the "ocean" with the island floating on top, and pour strains of caramel syrup and roasted almond slices. I ate Ile flottante a la French in Paris, but I didn't like the caramel on top, 'guess one just sticks to what Grandma used to make :).
I have some other optional flavor add-ons instead that I prefer, come and taste my variations in my own kitchen :) or even better, experiment with your own.

Suggestion
1. Do not try to boil the whole bunch of egg whites, after scooping several nice birds you'll have some left on the sides of the bowl that can't be so nicely scooped. You choose whether you have some scrambled birds (nothing wrong with the taste), or just stick to the nice ones and wash the leftover egg white away. 
2. You can strain the milk used to boil the birds and use it for a hot chocolate, or if you choose so you can make the birds first, strain the milk and use it for the cream.
I actually never do. I make at once few "birds" only, store the milk (egg whites, and the leftover cream) in the fridge and just reuse it next day to make more birds, as the birds can not be stored for long. They either get hard or collapse, depends how much you cooked them..

PS. Sorry for the poor pic, I just couldn't make any better, the camera was always out of focus Maybe next time..

Csöröge - kinda donut

OK, the ball is very high for my patience to fry proper fánk, so I usually cheat. Just a tiny bit ;).
I make csöröge. It's a relaxed way to enjoy the "szalagos fánk" without the stress of having proper ribbon.
The dough is exactly the same, what differs is the shape in which is cut, folded and fried. As a result the dough gets in contact on a larger surface with the hot oil, which guarantees, that unless you screwed up the leavening, the result will be great. And I don't have to worry about putting the lid, removing the lid... Phew..

The csöröge should be made without yeast, and therefore the name csöröge = csörög(e), (rattling "donut"), but my hubby doesn't like any rattling "rattling donut", so I don't make it. OK, only very rarely, 'cause my daughter likes the rattling csöröge. I probably should fry "rózsafánk" for her, but that's a different story. Now the csöröge.
First make the dough based on the recipe from donut dough.
Roll out the dough ~0.5 cm thick in a round shape. Start cutting the dough in diagonal at about 3 finger distances. Then do the same thing in the other direction, until you get rhombus shaped cuts.
Make a small, 3cm (~1 in), cut in the middle of every rhombus, bring one corner of the rhombus through the cut, a bit "shake it" to get the right shape.
Let them stay for 10-15 minutes under a table cloth.
Fry in hot oil on both sides and remove them on a plate covered with kitchen paper. Serve with icing sugar and/or jam.

1.5 litres oil for frying (the csöröge should not reach the bottom).
Frying pan

Serving (all optional)
~100 g icing sugar
raspberry jam
apricot jam
whatever is you favorite jam :
Last I had them with blackcurrant jam, and hmmmmmm.... Yammi.

Tähtitorttu - puff pastry star-cake

Finnish Xmas cookie. A bit late with making them, but better later then never.
If I were if Finland I would just buy the dough and the tähtitorttu would have been made in time for Xmas.. *Sigh*.. Good old easy days.
This time I had to make my own dough, and you can find my gawky trial here.
As you can see the puff pastry recipe is good enough, thanks chef Michel, to have the "thousand layers" already at the first time.. It was nicely cracking as I bit on it, and melted in mouth..
Was gone as soon as the kids tasted it.. The youngest came back for the next round running and shouting "ínycsinklandó finomság' :D. These are what I call the magic tastes of childhood one'll always hanker after..

Ingredients (for ~8)
500 g puff pastry dough
plum marmalade
icing sugar

I took a bit less then half of the dough, about 500 g (a bit more the 1 pound), I just managed to cut that much... That's where the amount come from :).

Roll the dough out to about 0.5 cm, cut it into 7-8 cm squares.
Make cuts from the corners in the diagonal towards the centre (without cutting completely through), scoop 1/2 tsp of marmalade in the middle and fold in every second corner, pinching them together a bit not to open too much.
Bake them at 200 C (400 F) for 20-23 minutes. Check how yours are looking..
Sprinkle icing sugar on top, and serve with red glögi..
I'm just gonna eat them with my Hungarian spicy red wine ;).
Bon appétite!

Omenahyvä - apple good :)

In general I'm skeptical about Finnish food that look like omenahyvä (not to mention mämmi). It is aesthetically not so appealing, to say the least..
But... Unlike mämmi (sorry mämmi :) ) this is just soo good and easy, and healthy, and has so many things I like, like almond, and oatmeal, and cinnamon, and vanilla ice cream.... that after I ate at a friend's house I baked it at home too, regardless of the look.
Given that the preparation takes about 10 minutes plus 30 minutes baking time, I would definitely say is worth the effort :).
It is an absolute beginner dessert, as soon as you trust your kid with a knife and handling the oven they can bake it on their own.

Ingredients (~8 portions)
4 large, sourish apples (like Jonagold), or 6 smaller ones, pealed, cut into ~1-1.5 cm cubes
1/2 lemon zest
75 - 100 g butter (~2/3 - 1 stick), depends how buttery you like it
2 dl rolled oats ( a bit less that a cup)
1 dl sugar (a bit less than 1/2 a cup), if you use brown sugar even better
1/2 dl almond, sliced
1-2 tsp cinnamon

Serving
vanilla ice cream or
whipped vanilla cream

You can consider adding 1/2 dl raisins.. 

Peal and cut the apples into cubes (~1 - 1.5 cm cubes) and sprinkle them with the lemon zest (helps them keep the nice color).
Spread the apple in a buttered tray (20x30 cm, but size is not critical) evenly. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon, add the almonds, evenly distributed on top of the apples (sprinkle again with cinnamon), add the oatmeal evenly spread (sprinkle with cinnamon :)), and last pour the melted butter mixed with the sugar on top of everything.. Do not mix them yet in the tray!!
Bake them in a preheated oven at 200 C (400 F) for 20-25 minutes. After 20-25 minutes with a spoon mix the ingredients lightly so that the apple from the bottom is mixed with the oatmeal and almond, and the oatmeal gets to soak in the apple's juice . Bake for additional 5-10 minutes (the baking time is all together 30 minutes). The earlier you mix them, the softer the oatmeal gets, decide or try whether you like it more crispy or more soft. I like it crispy, so I mix them only about 5 minutes before removing it from the oven.

Serve while still warm with vanilla ice cream, I just love the warm apple-cinnamon-oatmeal with the melting vanilla ice cream on top..

You can serve it with whipped vanilla cream as well if you don't have, or like, ice cream.
Have a nice sunshiny day!

Szalagos fánk - Hungarian donuts

From time to time is nice to enjoy things created by others, especially by hubby. The "szalagos fánk" is his specialty, I would never dare to compare my fánk to his creations..
He promised, and made, us fánk for new year. Though he claims these were not his best, perfect, "fánk" (because not all of them had the one finger-thick "szalag"), I would mention in a side note that he is too perfectionist :). They all had lovely holes and spongy texture inside.
First the naming story.. Fánk means donut (ok, kinda..), and "szalagos" means ribbon-ed, because of the white ribbon (stripe like thingy) that runs around the middle. If you don't have the ribbon the fánk might still taste great, but if you are unlucky it can easily fall into the "szalonnás" category :), which means lardy, and I guess the name "lardy donut" is already suggestive enough that it can't be good..The inside remains sticky, a raw-ish..
The "szalagos fánk" is a typical "farsang" - carnival dessert, (held in February by Hungarians all over inside and outside the borders of Hungary), but is a treat enjoyed all year round.
Has a huge blemish though: makes your trousers grow small verrry quickly if enjoyed too often.
Yeah, you know, all the good things in life are either unhealthy, or lewd, or make you fat.
Ok, enough of stories, to the business..

Ingredients
500 g all purpose flour (more like bread, high gluten flour, we use King Arthur's all purpose flour)
pinch of salt
~300 ml whole milk (depends on the flour, needs some experience to adjust the right amount)
40 g fresh yeast, or 1.5 tsp dry yeast
50 g icing sugar
60 g butter, melted
3 egg yolks
1 - 1.5 tbsp rum aroma
1 grated lemon peel (finely grated)

1.5 liters oil for frying (the fánk should not reach the bottom)
Frying pan with a lid

Serving (all optional)
~100 g icing sugar
raspberry jam
apricot jam
whatever is you favorite jam :)

First in a small, but broader, bowl put about 100 ml hand warm milk and crumble the yeast to trot, with about half of the sugar. It takes only a couple of minutes, the surface should be covered with lovely bubbles. If it's not, just throw the whole thing away and start again, your yeast must be "dead".
Add the remaining milk add the sugar, the egg yolks, rum and lemon peel, mix it to help the sugar dissolve.
Add the flour to the liquid mix, work it well together in a very soft dough and adjust the amount of milk and flour if needed, until you get a dough that clings together and detaches from the walls of the bowl, but is still soft to touch. Last mix in the butter.
Cover the bowl with a cloth and let is rise for 30-60 min, depends on the temperature in the house, the dough should grow to at least 2-2.5 times bigger than the original size.
Dump the dough on a floured table, roll it out to about 0.5 cm, and cut them with a ~6 - 7 cm diameter cutter (or sharper glass).
Place them on a separate floured sheet and let them rise for another 15 minutes, covered with a cloth. They should again rise to about double size..

Meanwhile heat up the oil. It should be quite warm, but not too warm to burn the fánk too quickly 'cause it won't have time to grow the "ribbon". It is approximately on the half - to - two thirds scale of your burner, but this is something you will need to experiment with.. :(
When the oil is hot, and the raw fánk rested for 15 min, place them in the hot oil UPSIDE DOWN (the upper part of the fánk, which is more dry, goes in the hot oil) and put the lid on while you fry this side. Sometimes works better without the lid, but that's something you will have to see again for yourself..
Don't put more then 3-4 fánk at ones in the pan, it is more difficult to cope with the short frying time..
It takes only ~40 sec to fry one side.
When the side in the oil looks golden/light brown, remove the lid, turn the fánk in the oil, and fry the other side as well, this time without the lid. This is the time when, if everything went well, the fánk starts growing its ribbon.. It is such a rewarding sight. :)
Place the ready fánk on plates covered with kitchen paper to absorb excess oil, and when they cooled a bit sprinkle them with icing sugar.
Serve while warm. Enjoy!

PS. If you had enough of frying and still have dough leftover, no panic, put it in the fridge, before cutting it into circles though. Next day just let it warm up a bit, roll it out, cut the fánk circles and let it rest for 15 minutes and fry.

Foszlós kalács - challah

This is not the Jewish challah. This is an egg-free, much more white, more fluffy version my Grandma used to bake for every Xmas and New Year. I wasn't sure whether I really liked it so much, or was it just the memories that made it so good.
Anyway, in our region this kalács, and not the "bejgli", is the typical Xmas treat, and I was looking for that particular taste..
In our village everybody makes "kalács" kinda the same way I cook: "I had this much milk for the purpose, so I added the required amount of yeast, and added as much flour as it took to make a soft dough".. But DON't ask for the recipe.. *Sigh*...
Noh, yeah, but my fingers are trained for the bread, "pulla" and "aranygaluska", so I was quite skeptic I'm gonna make any good kalács without some guidelines.
And I found some at Szellem a fazékban blog. Not so useful ones, after all, but it gave me courage to start :). In the recipe says 200 ml milk, but there is no way you can work that amount of flour together in a soft dough with that little amount of milk.. You can of course try, but when I saw that about 1/3 of my flour didn't even cling together with the rest, I just added another 100 ml milk, and a bit later another 50 ml, 'cause I didn't find the dough very soft. At the end of the day, it was still my fingers I used for measurement :) and forgot about the recipe, but I made it at least the same shape as in the recipe because it looked soooo great (isn't it?), regardless that this is not the traditional shape for a "kalács".

Ingredients
600 g flour (~1 liter or ~4 cups)
30 g fresh yeast, or 10 g dry yeast, about 2 heaped tsp
1/2 tsp salt
100 g icing sugar (3.5 ounce)
125 g butter (1cup)
350-400 ml hand warm milk, (1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups) depends how much the flour takes in to make an easy to work with dough, not sticky but not to hard either. 

I used a bit more then 350 ml milk, and though it looked OK, it was hard to roll it out after 45 minutes raising. So, next time I will for sure use 400ml to make a bit softer dough.

Work it together in a smooth, easy to kneed dough (needs quite a bit of kneading to get enough air in it), and let it rise for 30-45 minutes, until the dough grows to about double size.
Divide the dough into 3 parts, roll it out in about 20x40 cm sheet, spread the filling, roll it on the longer edge and try to keep the length. If it shortens just roll it a bit thinner and longer.
Do the same with all three portions and make a nice braid to fit your tray.
Let it rise for another 20 minutes, spread some egg on top, or if you want to leave the eggs out completely then just a bit of water. Let it dry for a minute, or two.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 190 C (375 F) and bake it for 30 minutes on the upper racks. When ready wrap it into kitchen towels and let it cool for about 1 hour. Ready to be served with chocolate milk in the morning.

For the original shape just divide the dough into two, roll it out in a 20x25 cm rectangle, roll it up on the longer edge and place them in two 10x25 cm (preferably 10cm high) trays. Bake for 30 (20? I shell try) min.

Filling
100 g icing sugar (3.5 ounce)
100 g ground poppy seeds or walnut (3.5 ounce)
milk, enough to boil it in a soft cream

The filling is for 1 roll, you will need 3, adjust the amount based on whether you want 2 nut and 1 poppy seed, or 2 poppy seed and 1 nut, or all of them the same.
Boil them together for couple of minutes until they blend nicely in an easy to spread, creamy texture.
 
And one last thing!! If you have leftovers that are dry and you don't feel like eating them as such, beat one egg, (add two tablespoons of milk), dip the kalács slices in the egg and fry them in hot oil, for just couple of minutes, ~1/2 min a side. It is a sort of french toast. Sprinkle it with icing sugar, and tadam, you have a new, fresh breakfast/dessert reusing the leftovers.. It is yumi.

PS. In the pic you see the "kalács" with cocoa powder and cinnamon filling, something you can try as well.
And one secret :). To make the nice cocoa swirl like in the pic don't add cocoa powder straight to the whole amount of dough you want to be with cocoa. Take a large pinch of dough, add a tsp cocoa, work it together well. When the small pinch of dough is smooth, add it to the whole amount of though you wanna be dark, and kneed it together.

Vanilla/almond crescent shaped cookies or Vaníliás-mandulás kifli

I have a favorite Xmas and New Year coffee cookie, a kinda linzer if you want to give them some names.
They are VERY easy to make, trust me, don't bother with the ones in the shop which are full of E-s :).

Ingredients:
250 g pastry flour (you can use half whole grain as well)
200 g butter
80 g icing sugar
100 g almond flour (ground almond)
1 tsp vanilla aroma (optional)
Vanilla sugar for rolling the croissants

Mix the butter with sugar until creamy (and vanilla, if you add any), add the almond and the normal flour and work it well together in a soft dough. Form small, about 5-6 cm long and 1 cm thick croissants. Not too big ones, though the dough doesn't have baking powder it will grow pretty big, and don't make them very pointed at the ends either, it will burn too early.
Place them on trays covered with parchment paper. Bake them for 10-15 minutes at 175 C - 350 F(my oven is not heating up very well, so I baked them at 180 C), depends how golden you want them.
While still hot roll them in the vanilla sugar if you like them sweet, if you prefer them moderately sweet is enough if you just sprinkle them a little bit.
Be careful, for the first half a minute/minute they are the most fragile cookies I've ever baked, but eventually they harden enough to be able to manipulate them.

If you want to play with the shapes, you can also roll the dough, about 3-4 mm thick, and cut it with your cookie cutters, and even glue two of them together with jam, like raspberry or blueberry jam.
The dough is not easy to work with in this case, so better use two sheets of baking paper, one below and one on top when rolling, and you'll need some spatula to place the cookies in the trays.

PS. If you live in the US, like I do at the moment, and are struggling finding vanilla sugar, don't panic. Buy a small bottle with two vanilla beans like Simply Organic, cut them, take the small black seeds out and mix it with sugar, kinda filling the original bottle back till almost full, about 100g sugar. You can squeeze even the whole leftover of the beans in the bottle, it will intensify the flavor.
Close the cork and let it soak in the aroma for a week at least for best results.